Louisiana vaccine skeptic gets No. 2 CDC job.

1 hour ago7 min read

In a move that signals a profound philosophical shift for America's premier public health institution, the Trump administration has appointed Dr. Ralph Abraham, a former Louisiana health official with a documented history of vaccine skepticism, as the principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.This appointment fills a critical vacuum left by a summer of high-level departures, including the abrupt August firing of former Director Susan Monarez, but it does so by placing a figure with controversial public health stances into the agency's second-highest role. Dr.Abraham, a three-term congressman who later practiced family medicine, was identified on an internal CDC directory, a placement later confirmed by the Department of Health and Human Services. His role, which does not require Senate confirmation, makes him the most senior medical professional at the CDC, serving directly under acting director Jim O’Neill, a Silicon Valley investor with no formal medical background, a pairing that suggests a fundamental reorientation of the agency away from its traditional scientific moorings.The core of the controversy lies in Abraham's tenure as Louisiana's Surgeon General, where in February he issued a stark internal memo explicitly halting all state-sponsored media campaigns and health fairs promoting vaccination against preventable diseases. This directive, reported by the New York Times, represents a direct challenge to decades of established public health doctrine which relies on community outreach and education to achieve herd immunity.Furthermore, Abraham has publicly clashed with Senator Bill Cassidy, a fellow Louisiana Republican and physician, over vaccine safety, admonishing Cassidy to 'stay in his lane' while expressing personal disbelief in the safety of COVID-19 shots. His advocacy extended into the realm of unproven therapeutics; he actively supported deregulating the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin to make it available without a prescription for COVID-19 and recommended it to his own patients, a stance at odds with numerous large-scale clinical trials.A MedPage Today investigation starkly highlighted this commitment, revealing Abraham was the seventh-highest prescriber of ivermectin in Louisiana during 2021, a period when its inefficacy against the virus was already widely recognized by the global medical community. Historically, the CDC's authority has been predicated on its perceived objectivity and commitment to evidence-based science, a reputation painstakingly built over decades but severely strained during the political fissures of the pandemic.The installation of a leader who has openly questioned foundational public health tenets risks institutionalizing a post-truth paradigm within its walls, potentially eroding public trust at a time when vigilance against emerging pathogens remains critical. This decision echoes historical precedents where political loyalty was prioritized over technical expertise, recalling other administrations that sought to bend federal agencies to ideological wills, often with lasting bureaucratic and functional consequences.The immediate ramifications will likely be internal, potentially stifling career scientists and influencing the direction of future guidelines on everything from routine childhood immunizations to pandemic preparedness. Externally, it provides potent ammunition for the global anti-vaccine movement and could complicate international health collaborations, as partner nations may question the scientific integrity of data and recommendations emanating from Atlanta. The long-term danger is a CDC perceived not as a neutral arbiter of scientific truth, but as an agency subject to the political winds of the moment, a transformation that would represent one of the most significant and troubling legacies of this era for American public health.

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#CDC

#Ralph Abraham

#vaccine skepticism

#ivermectin

#Trump administration

#public health